Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Fedex fun

We have been using Earth Class Mail service ever since we moved to Czech Republic. It has been really great, as you can scan and read your letters remotely from here in Brno.

Recently I sent a few packages to our Earth Class Mail address, hoping that my hubby would pick them up when he was back in LA on business in July. Well, he was too busy to pick up everything. Consequently, I ended up having them forwarded over to the Czech Republic via Fedex.

Something that I didn't know was that here in the Czech Republic you need to pay VAT if the value of the items exceeds 45 EUR :-( Foolish me... I claimed the value of the items to be $300. Even though I sent the package via Fedex International Priority which should had been delivered in 3-4 days, it got completely stuck at Czech customs. The package left the Earth Class Mail office in LA on July 27, went to Indianapolis on July 28, air shipped to Paris on July 28, and arrived to Prague on July 29. It was very smooth till then. Then it got stuck in Prague for several days with the red alert saying "Cleareance delay."

We got a help from Katka from my hubby's company to check what might be going on, and we found out about the VAT. Strange thing was that Fedex never sent me any notices that the package was stuck and that I needed documents and money for the clearance. Anyway, I had to sign a couple of documents, and send a copy of my passport picture page, etc, to have Fedex work with Customs to have it released.

My package was stuck there from July 29 to August 6. And somehow Fedex in Czech Republic doesn't operate over the weekend, and I had to wait until Monday for them to send it to Brno, and it finally arrived at our place at 4:20pm on Aug 9. Whew!